My last review for a few days because I'm going to be on holiday and won't be able to watch or review anything 🙏 Six Feet Under is one of my favourite shows of all time, and since I never reviewed it after I first finished watching it and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, I decided that now is a better time than ever to review it. This show is one of the most meaningful and personally relevant shows ever to me, and I’ve become attached to it in a way that is close to nothing else. The Fisher family is easily my favourite cast in all of TV, I was extremely invested in all of their arcs and because of how deeply I connected and empathised with them, this show is probably the most emotional viewing experience I’ve ever had. I genuinely cried to a quarter of the episodes throughout the entire show, a feat that nothing else has ever come close to. Despite just how dark and depressive it is at times though, when I look back at it it brings me so much joy and warmth. Its conclusion has given me so many life lessons, and I am simply so glad to have experienced something like this. [⚠️ !!!!!!SPOILERS FOR ALL OF SIX FEET UNDER!!!!!! ⚠️] How SFU affected my view of storytelling: All of my favourite shows have shaped my perspective on storytelling in one way or another. Mr. Robot taught me the capabilities of television as a medium when it’s used most thoughtfully and meaningfully, Better Call Saul taught me what good visual storytelling looks like, The Sopranos taught me what narrative realism looks like at its best, you get the idea. For Six Feet Under, it helped shape my view of the importance (or lack of importance) of efficiency in storytelling. Before watching Six Feet Under, although I still didn’t outright believe that shows that are more efficient with the stories they tell are inherently superior, I definitely had a preference towards them. On a surface level this is pretty understandable, nobody likes a show that drags itself out too far and begins to waste your time, and when a long form TV series manages to waste little to no time with effectively delivering a message to its audience and then ending, that can be incredibly rewarding. Six Feet Under helped me realise that as much as efficiency can be valuable for certain stories, not every show should strive to be that way, as SFU isn’t an efficient story whatsoever and it actively benefits from that. Most episodes of this show are filled with “filler” scenes that serve no apparent purpose to its narrative, and what’s so impressive is how the show uses this to its advantage. The amount of time we spend with these characters, even during their most trivial or unimportant moments is one of the most important things about this series that humanises and characterises them. We watch them for so long that at a certain point, it feels like the cast are real human beings who are growing and changing along with us. This is so effective and it made me so emotionally invested in the Fisher family, and this was all because the show favours a kind of storytelling that I had previously written off. What I’m trying to say here is that different pieces of art are attempting to achieve different things, and so for the same reason that one piece of art might be bad, another might be good. While Better Call Saul might have been a worse show if its cinematography was less complex, the simplistic, traditionally “uninteresting” cinematography of a show like The Sopranos helps accentuate the down to earth nature of its narrative. Although a show like Mr. Robot might have been worse if it didn’t spend every single minute of its runtime doing something relevant and intriguing, Six Feet Under actively benefits from not doing this as it makes the cast feel more humane and real. In that sense, this show is one of the greatest testaments to the beautiful subjectivity of art. Six Feet Under’s perspective and lessons about death: If it wasn’t already obvious from its title, Six Feet Under is a show about death. The Fisher family run a funeral home, and in the opening scene of each episode, somebody dies. This concept is actually one of the things that intrigued me the most about the series and got me interested in watching it, but at the same time, a concept like this could be incredibly restricting. If it was done wrong, this idea could have trapped the writers into a corner where they have to shoe-horn in a death for the sake of it even when an episode doesn’t need one, but this concept is actually used very effectively as most episodes are instead written around these deaths, as they compliment the ongoing themes or conflicts of the episode. One of the best examples of this is episode 5x5, this episode starts with a diabetic man taking the risk of eating a peach and dying from it, aligning with the other plots in the episode as each character takes a risk in their lives in order to seek some greater kind of fulfilment. These deaths are almost always used in a compelling way, not only because they help showcase the talent of the film-makers and directors working on the show and compliment the darkly comedic tone of the series, but also because they’re often written into the rest of the episode in a very well conceived and meaningful way. Arguably the most important thing I learnt about death from Six Feet Under is the fact that we are less protected from it than we think. Of course everybody knows that everyone eventually dies, but despite that, the average human being internally imagines themselves as less prone to risking death in everyday life. Six Feet Under relentlessly picks apart that notion, as through episodes such as 3x11 (titled “Death Works Overtime”) and the constant presence of death through the show’s cold opens, it tells us that whether we like it or not, we are constantly at risk of meeting our fate in one way or another. One of the most important ways that this is conveyed is with the idea of random occurrence and how strongly it affects the narrative of the show. While most series plan out their character arcs in a calculated, linear way that might be compelling from a storytelling perspective even if it is ultimately unrealistic, so many of the character arcs throughout Six Feet Under are constantly taken in an opposite direction by tragic coincidences, which is far more true to the way life actually is and what can cause a person to develop drastically. The literal inciting incident of the entire show is the death of Nate Fisher Sr as he gets hit by a bus in an accident, with this unintended event kicking the plot of the show into gear and changing the lives of the rest of the Fisher family forever. Perhaps my favourite instance of random occurrence shaping a character arc is with episode 4x5 titled That’s My Dog as David Fisher is mugged and taken on a journey of torment and abuse that completely reshapes the direction of his life, which still remains as one of the most startling, horrifying episodes I’ve ever watched. With all this in mind, Six Feet Under is a constant reminder of our own mortality, of the fact that death and trauma are just as likely to happen to us whether we like it or not, and that we must find a way to live our lives in a meaningful way despite this. I cannot talk about death in this series without speaking on my second favourite episode of the entire show, All Alone. All Alone is the rawest, most realistic and (as always with this show) profoundly humane exploration of grief I’ve ever seen. Although each character is impacted by Nate’s death differently, I think the one unifying idea of this episode is the idea of how death provides us with both isolation and togetherness in equal measure. While every single character in this episode feels isolated due to their intense struggle and grief, it is the fact that they are ALL alone that they’re not quite as alone as they think. It is in moments of loss such as this where the people that love us are here for us, and the Fisher family is collectively able to get through this devastating loss thanks to the support they provide one another in their shared suffering. All Alone is undoubtedly one of my favourite episodes ever, potentially the most I’ve cried to any piece of art in my life except maybe Everyone’s Waiting and the Mr. Robot finale (although both of these episodes didn’t make me cry as consistently even if I was sobbing harder), and an episode that I hold very close to me. Although I haven’t had any real experiences with death in my life, it is an episode that I imagine I will come back to when that time comes as something to provide me healing and catharsis, exactly how it helped me grieve from Nate’s death in the episode before. Nate Fisher: Nate Fisher is one of my favourite protagonists of all time (only behind Elliot, Jimmy and Tony) and one of my favourite characters ever in general. To me, he serves as the vessel for most of the show's greatest existential themes, as well as its greatest life lessons. The concept of random occurrence that I discussed earlier is best highlighted with him, as his character arc is literally dictated by random events. It begins in the pilot as his father dies, affecting him the most profoundly out of everyone as a wake up call for him to start living his life in a productive way. The next real shift forward for his character is at the end of season 1 as he gets in a car crash, giving him a potentially fatal brain condition. He somehow manages to survive his surgery to get rid of his condition thanks to a sheer miracle. Afterwards, his wife dies by drowning, and his character arc finally ends with him dying due to the condition he suffered from earlier in the show even when it appeared as though he was perfectly healthy. It’s this extreme combination of lucky and unlucky events that define his character and make him so sympathizable even when he’s not always the best person, very few characters have shown such an unflinching portrayal of existential struggle and pain in the same way. Another core idea expressed with Nate’s character is the difficulty that comes with living your life in an honest and fulfilling way. With the list of events that define Nate’s character arc mentioned above, you would imagine that Nate starts to value his life more and more as he begins to realise just how precious and finite it is. However, this is not the case at all. Although his father dying brings him back home and makes him follow in his father’s footsteps by working at their family funeral home, across the show he progressively becomes disillusioned with the job as he believes it takes away from the rawness and authenticity of grief. Although he tries to live his life to the fullest in season 2, when facing death as his surgery awaits in the season 2 finale he is devastated realising that his final moments may have slipped by him without him ever living life in a meaningful way before meeting his end. After surviving his surgery and now being more grateful for being alive than ever, he tries to finally get it right by living with his wife and raising their child, and yet he’s still dissatisfied by this and this opportunity eventually slips past him as Lisa tragically dies. To me, this encapsulates the greatest tragedy about Nate as a character: The fact that no matter how many chances he’s given, he never manages to live life as well as he wants to, always letting life pass him by on autopilot like so many of us do. It gets to an extent where Nate and the audience alike begin to wonder, why is it that Nate can’t find happiness? Is it that he’s simply an unlucky person, that he doesn’t know what he wants in life, or that he’s incapable of truly feeling love and being in a committed relationship? This brings me to his character conclusion in Ecotone which finally provides us with an answer to this, and it was this episode that solidified Nate as one of the greatest characters ever to me. Right before he dies, Nate has one final dream, and this dream is his LITERAL dream as it’s everything he aspires his life to be. In this dream, he isn’t constrained by his own responsibilities or the responsibilities of those around him, and he enjoys getting high and going to the beach with his brother and father. All Nate ever wanted was to live without the responsibility and emotional baggage of the real world, but he was never capable of doing that because of the societal standards that told him he should grow up, work, start a family and more, when all he ever wanted was freedom. This conclusion is one of the most incredibly well crafted I’ve ever seen and so important to the show’s thematic conclusion in its final episode, but I’ll speak more on that later. Claire Fisher: Claire Fisher is the closest any character has come to surpassing Elliot Alderson from Mr. Robot as my favourite character of all time, as well as the closest any character has come to being as profoundly relatable as Elliot for me. Even with that being said, as much as Elliot is still a better character to me who I connect with more, purely in terms of how much I love them as a person, no other character even comes close to Claire. Not only because I love her deeply but also because I see so much of myself within her in a way that is so emotional for me. I know a lot of people on this app absolutely love Claire (as they should) but it genuinely wouldn’t shock me if I love her more than anyone else on this app and I want to get into why. When I think of the most acclaimed and popular TV characters whose lives are essentially a complete mess, the first two that come to my mind are Jesse Pinkman and Chrissy Moltisanti. These are two characters who endure intense suffering, who have intense struggles with addiction, and although Claire may be similar to them and definitely goes through a lot throughout the series, she is essentially a subversion of this trope because of just how comforting of a character she is. In comparison to a Jesse or a Chrissy who are often seen as blundering failures, Claire has constantly provided me with comfort and reassurance that not having your life entirely sorted out is completely normal and humane. When it comes down to it, Claire is a normal person with problems in her life that are very easy to empathise with, and because of that normalcy, her character constantly feels as though the writers are telling me that it’s okay to not know what you want to do with your life, to not believe in your own capabilities or to not be completely matured as a person yet, because with time and growth things will eventually sort themselves out like they do for her. One of the parts that I empathise the most deeply about with Claire is her aspirations to become an artist and how that aspiration develops over the course of the series. I also want to create art someday and I know that’s what I want to do with my life, and when I see Claire’s journey (particularly through the first 4 seasons) it literally feels like I’m seeing how my own life has progressed. In season 1, she is arguably at her messiest and has figured herself out the least, she’s in her second to last year of high school, filled with frustration at the world around her and unsure of what she wants to do in the future. In season 2, she rediscovers her passion for art and specifically photography, and for a moment it feels as though she has found a path out of this state of confusion by creating art and doing something that she finds passion in. Season 3 starts off with her going to art school, but as this progresses, things take an unexpected turn. The people she loved and admired begin to betray her and her art teacher Olivier, who Claire and the audience alike start off admiring, is revealed to be the pretentious, self-serving piece of shit he is. Suddenly, the escape that Claire yearned for has become just another thing to let her down as art school suddenly transforms her passion into another thing to be graded and regulated, and in season 4 she sees art school in a far more disillusioned way as she instead indulges in drugs and other things with her friends. A lot of people believe her arc in season 4, which largely revolves around her exploring her sexuality, is her weakest season, but I strongly disagree with this. I was always going to love Claire in this season because I’m gay and also deeply in love with Claire but without my own personal attachment to her on that level, I also believe her arc with her sexuality was handled in such an authentic way. It ultimately concludes with her deciding that despite the fact that she may feel attracted to women in a romantic or platonic sense, she (unfortunately) isn’t attracted to them sexually, and well a lot of people may believe this makes her arc in this season pointless, I once again disagree. This is so authentic and true to real life, a lot of the time when you’re younger and still don’t understand yourself yet like Claire it can be incredibly difficult to know or understand your sexuality, and if you explore that aspect of your identity and nothing changes, that’s okay and completely natural. The way this arc concludes is completely fitting with the themes of Claire’s character overall as someone who is still exploring aspects of herself and her place in the world and I love that about it. This exploration of her sexuality in S4 is one of several instances of Claire being a character who I believe must be incredibly personal to the writers with how they handled her internal conflicts in such a thoughtful, delicate and realistic way, another prime example being in 3x12 when Claire has an abortion. A lot of shows from this era of TV would have handled this topic really poorly but SFU genuinely does it so well. We get such a thorough window into the mentally exhausting and devastating experience that this is for her, letting the audience know that as much as this was a necessary decision for Claire to make, it’s also not an easy one. I also think that as much as every character from this show goes through extreme and traumatic experiences such as this one, no other character was ever quite as sympathizable as Claire when it comes to the things she struggles with. Despite how pessimistic and irritated she can come across on a surface level, she’s genuinely one of the sweetest and most kind-hearted characters I’ve ever seen, and practically any moment from the show where she goes through something difficult or shows any kind of vulnerability hit me like a truck because of that. In conclusion, best person to ever live basically. Everyone’s Waiting: Everyone’s Waiting is not only a perfect finale, but also one of the best things I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. It is the most resonant conclusion I could possibly imagine for this show, and close to no other episode of television can compare in just how profoundly it has stuck with me and affected the way I see my own life. There are genuinely so many lines of dialogue from this episode that I constantly think about that I always find so much comfort in, and this is all without mentioning the transcendental final montage of the episode which is close to being the best thing I’ve ever experienced. Although every character conclusion here is perfect, I want to focus specifically on Nate and Claire as their characters are the most important to the message of this episode for me and they’re the two characters I’ve discussed the most about in this review. Everyone’s Waiting is Claire’s best episode with ease. It is a distillation of her entire arc throughout the series in the best and most moving way possible. After an entire season of feeling directionless and devoid of passion and inspiration (reflective of her state in season 1), she finally finds her passion again as her boyfriend Ted encourages her to get back into photography and she is given a chance at a potential career of her choice (reflective of the glimmer of hope she saw through art in season 2). However, she is unsure about taking this step even though she knows it’s what she wants and what will bring her fulfilment in life due to her self doubt and the negative ways in which her passion for art was twisted and turned against her (representative of her slowly becoming disillusioned with art in seasons 3-4). With all this in mind, the conflict she faces is whether or not after all the emotional tribulations she’s gone through, she can still find it in herself to pursue what she loves despite her fears. This brings me back to Nate. Nate lived his life wrong all the way until the very end. He was always driven by pleasing others and fulfilling societal norms, which is the core motivation behind him taking up his father’s job, trying to start a family with Lisa and trying to make his relationship with Brenda work in season 5 even when his heart wasn’t in it and he wasn’t compatible with her. Because of this, he never found true happiness or contentment, as the freedom he so greatly desired became lost amongst the other paths he chose where he was never truly living for himself. It’s because of this that Nate’s tragic death and unfulfilling life serve as a lesson for Claire and the audience, as it’s the advice of Nate’s ghost that brings Claire to finally go to New York and live life without her family. “I’ve spent my whole life being scared. Scared of not being ready, scared of not being right, not being who I should be. And where did it get me?” - Nate Fisher. With Nate’s mistakes in mind, Claire learns from them as she finally chooses herself. She leaves Ted and her family behind for the first time, living for herself, instead finding comfort in her lack of direction or understanding rather than confusion. She does what she knows she wants even when it’s hard, as she drives away in the show's final montage. Not only this, but the rest of the Fisher’s finally find peace as they learn to live better lives in the wake of Nate’s death, just how they did after Nate Sr’s death at the start of the show. With this, the final message of the show is clear: We must make the most of our lives while we still have the chance, embrace ourselves even when it feels impossible, as we will then be able to accept death rather than fearing it having lived in the way that completed us, no matter what that way is. [END OF SPOILERS] Season by season: Season 1 - Other than Mr. Robot S1 and obviously True Detective season 1, probably my favourite S1 ever. In many regards the show is still figuring itself out, but despite that it’s still so impressive how well the show understood its characters and how enjoyable this season overall is. It kicks off with the best pilot of all time and doesn’t really let up from there, every member of the cast is incredible throughout and the show has so much personality and distinction right from its first season. This is also the only season where David is the protagonist instead of Nate and this actually functions really well considering the contents of his arc in this season, with David’s seasonal arc being one of my favourites of all time as well as something very personal to me that I hold very closely. This is also likely the show’s most comedic season and I absolutely love that about it, this season is absolutely unhinged at times and was honestly one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences I’ve ever had. Knock, Knock is also the best S1 finale of all time and by far the most satisfying episode I’ve ever watched emotionally. 4.5/5. Season 2 - Unfortunately my least favourite season of the show. There are a lot of things to love about this season, Nate’s arc is incredible, Claire’s is even better, but on the whole this season definitely struggles in some regards. This is easily my least favourite season for David and Keith, with their relationship being more frustrating than compelling, complex or engaging, Ruth’s arc here is incredibly redundant for a lot of its runtime, and the execution of Brenda’s arc in this season was very poorly done to me. As much as the season finale is my favourite of the show and its resolution and overall quality makes up for its blunders, that doesn’t take away from the fact that this season was the hardest to get through in the whole show and it really feels as though the writers weren’t capable of sustaining the show’s narrative over a 13 episode season. 3.5/5. Season 3 - Just like the last 2 it’s not flawless consistency wise, but this season overall is mind-blowing enough that it more than makes up for it. Nate in this season is one of the greatest peaks of any protagonist ever (even though this arguably isn’t even his best season), the themes he conveys are so well realised, he’s incredibly performed by Peter Krause and his dynamics with both Lisa and Brenda are just the best of the best. The quality of the writing and the ingenuity throughout episodes such as 3x1, 3x4 and 3x10 are so impressive, episodes that should be average on a surface level are elevated unbelievably well by just how enjoyable and thoughtfully written the show is at this point. This is all without mentioning just how well the season concludes with the 3x10-4x1 arc, genuinely some of the most emotionally draining TV I’ve ever experienced without a doubt. Before then I had some minor issues with the season overall but when considering just how unbelievably hard the season went in that final stretch, when I speak about this season I genuinely don’t feel like critiquing it at all because of how good the ending is and how it made me view the entire season in an even more positive light when I was already loving it more than the last 2 seasons. My strongest 4.5/5. Season 4 - Second probably only to Mr. Robot S2 as the most underrated season I’ve ever watched. To an extent I can understand the hate it gets, it is definitely a more “transitional” kind of season so most of the character arcs aren’t quite as distinct as everything before it, but people who let that hold them back from appreciating this season are missing out. The character work here is some of the best I’ve ever seen, it felt like practically every episode was approaching the characters with a new perspective and making new observations on them, and the consistency of this season is the best of the show behind season 5. This is also the first season where I feel like they got Ruth and Rico’s characters unequivocally right, I absolutely love Ruth and George’s dynamic and was so emotional over it across this season and the stuff with Rico’s personal life was so engaging. This is all without mentioning the insane peaks of this season, Falling Into Place is my 2nd favourite season opener ever with one of the greatest scenes of the show, That’s My Dog is my favourite episode for David and encapsulates so much of what I love about the show, and Untitled is one of the most profound episodes of the series with some of my favourite dialogue ever and several incredibly visceral scenes. My strongest 4/5. Season 5 - An emotional masterclass and one of the greatest masterpieces in all of TV. It really feels like after all the added depth that the cast gets after being put into various situations from seasons 2-4, the show regresses back to the core questions and conflicts surrounding every member of the show. Can Nate find fulfilment? Can David accept himself and his identity? Can Ruth finally live freely after losing her husband? In that regard, even though it is quite similar to the first season, it is everything I could possibly want out of a final season thematically. This season literally has the best arc for EVERY single character, the only one where it’s even a question is with David because his arc in season 1 is about on par to his one here in my opinion, but even then it’s close because David’s arc in this season made me cry several times. Overall though despite how incredible this entire season is, it really does feel like the final season and show as a whole build up to that final 4 episode run, which is everything people say it is and more. Close to no other show has concluded so unbelievably well and I still think about those last few episodes all the time. 5/5. Top 5 characters: 1. Claire Fisher (Claire in S5 > in S4 = in S3 = in S2 > in S1) 2. Nate Fisher (Nate in S5 > in S3 > in S4 > in S2 > in S1) 3. David Fisher (One of my favourite characters of all time, I wanted to talk about him more in this review but didn’t for the sake of being more concise. David in S1 = in S5 > in S4 > in S3 > in S2) 4. Ruth Fisher (Ruth in S5 > in S4 > in S3 > in S1 > in S2) 5. Brenda Chenowith (Brenda in S5 > in S4 > in S1 > in S3 > in S2) Favourite episodes: 1. Everyone’s Waiting 2. All Alone 3. Ecotone 4. The Last Time 5. Static 6. Untitled 7. Falling Into Place 8. I’m Sorry, I’m Lost 9. That’s My Dog 10. Knock, Knock